The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on August 02, 2012, 11:54:25 AM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/1182488
Oh my.
It's pretty boring on Skins's island today.
EFerrari (163,986 posts)
I think I found a stone tool on Sunday walking near a newly turned field.
after which a picture of a rock
It's been worked on three sides of the top. The two longer sides have been flaked to a sharp edge. I can't tell what it might have been, maybe a scraping tool.
after with another picture of the same rock
It fits in your hand nicely although, that third (shorter) side is flat on both surfaces and could have accommodated a handle.
after which a third picture of the same rock
The sharpened edge goes right around the point, although the point is not sharp now.
Denninmi (2,855 posts)
1. Could be. I guess it might take an expert to tell you for sure.
Some rocks can fool people, I guess. We've found a few stone arrowheads here from time to time. People need to remember that they, too, will go this route. If Homo sapiens survives, some day they'll be digging up Ipads and toaster ovens and dvds and try to figure out what they were.
EFerrari (163,986 posts)
4. Iirc one way you can tell if a rock has been worked on is the little cone-shape breaks that happen when someone chips flakes off. Water doesn't do that in the same way, not as liquid or as ice. That's impact and a lot of similar cone-shaped breaks (there must be a term for that) isn't something that rocks do to each other. That's someone trying to shape a rock.
My little anthro and less geology ends right there, though.
johnnytoobad (9 posts)
9. HELLO ye of many posts-- the term is "knapping" .hope that helps.
EFerrari (163,986 posts)
10. Hey there, johnnytoobad, thank you.
I went back to the site to look around and there are a few other objects that look interesting. The one I brought back to my studio [sic] looks like a small grinding surface. I have to look up how to tell if a surface has been worn by human activity and not some other way, like by water, because I never did know very much about it.
This surface wasn't struck in the same way as the sharpened edge of the other piece. Given the pock marks on the top surface, it looks like someone took a tool about 1/2 inch in diameter to pound with -- about the size of a nail sink. I don't know why you'd do that unless you were crushing small seeds or something.
But there are three other places that show smoother wear, where there aren't pock marks but more like gouges made over a longer period of time by bigger, rounder tools. And those places aren't symmetrical or consistent with the sheen or smoothness you'd get from water. So.
Fun
Viva_La_Revolution (25,722 posts)
2. looks like a chopper used for things like smashing bones. hard to put an edge on granite that would be sharp enough to use as an ax. It looks like a throwaway, used a few times and then discarded. the ones they kept had much more detailed shaping.
EFerrari (163,986 posts)
3. The sharp edges are sort of amazing because they look like one edge but when you run your finger along them, they feel scalloped.
It was in a field that is up away from the dry creek bed. The gardener threw a bunch of rocks out of the field before he planted his stuff in late April and this was one of them.
The folks that lived around here were in pretty small groups, moved with the seasons and traveled light. This bit of land was probably well traveled because it's at the base of the foothills and had water running through it. It's also about a day's walk from 2 rivers which are about a day's walk from the bay.
I'm sort of surprised we haven't found more of these things but this is really the first year since we've been here that a field of any size was turned.
Viva_La_Revolution (25,722 posts)
5. yep, not something they would want to tote to the next site
It only takes a few minutes to find a rock of the appropriate shape and knock off just enough flakes to get an edge.
what a cool find
jwirr (20,019 posts)
6. That looks like an old arrowhead to me. We have found many but my son in law does not want us to keep them because they belong to the person who made it. Native belief. On second thought it could be too big for an arrowhead. The sharp point made me assume that.
EFerrari (163,986 posts)
7. It's about the size of a kitchen utensil. Which it might have been. :)
johnnytoobad (9 posts)
8. looks like it could be a knife----
I have found many similar tools. regardless, if the edge has been "worked" it was definitely used as some kind of tool. Hold it and imagine the people who used it and the struggle life must have been.
lumberjack_jeff (21,910 posts)
11. Every rock near me is a stone tool.
Some are hammers, and some are hammers serving other functions.
It's too bad the bird-smacking stoned red-faced primitive, Chief S itting Bull, isn't around any more, because maybe he could tell poor stupid Beth.
However, the big guy in Bellevue, OmahaSteve, is still around, and perhaps poor stupid Beth can ask him. After all, he's Native American.....1/64th.
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Ho hum, poor stupid Beth.
:lame:
Do we have a yawning smiley?
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:yawn:
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Ho hum, poor stupid Beth.
:lame:
Do we have a yawning smiley?
I was desperate.
I didn't want to come back here with an empty boat; I had to bring something.
Skins's island is pretty boring today.
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Denninmi (2,855 posts)
1. Could be. I guess it might take an expert to tell you for sure.
Some rocks can fool people, I guess. We've found a few stone arrowheads here from time to time. People need to remember that they, too, will go this route. If Homo sapiens survives, some day they'll be digging up Ipads and toaster ovens and dvds and try to figure out what they were.
Hardly, DUmmie Denninmi. We are no longer without written and recorded history.
Stupid DUmbass.
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I was desperate.
I didn't want to come back here with an empty boat; I had to bring something.
Skins's island is pretty boring today.
Oh, this wasn't against you, Frank. This is just to communicate what sort of lives these DUmmies have and post about. Why isn't poor, stupid Beth out volunteering for some charity or helping the poor and downtrodden?
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Why isn't poor, stupid Beth out volunteering for some charity or helping the poor and downtrodden?
Because poor stupid Beth is too busy doing the "intellectual" part of the work; she doesn't have time to go out and do some real work.
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So Beths head is a little emptier after that fell out?
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How does anyone with more than 160K posts have time to do anything at all, other than type on a keyboard and look for cheeto crumbs?
That many posts on DU is an average of 40+ per day. If we imagine an average of 5 minutes/post, that is more than 3 hours every day (roughly) since DU opened.
Most of these people post on multiple sites, so there's some more time.
That is borderline sad.
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How does anyone with more than 160K posts have time to do anything at all, other than type on a keyboard and look for cheeto crumbs?
That many posts on DU is an average of 40+ per day. If we imagine an average of 5 minutes/post, that is more than 3 hours every day (roughly) since DU opened.
Most of these people post on multiple sites, so there's some more time.
That is borderline sad.
Actually, poor stupid Beth has been on Skins's island only since November 2004, and if that's taken into consideration, it's more than 40+ posts per day.
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Some rocks can fool people
And all of the DUchebags.
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Did anybody else go over to look at the pics, and see only a rock?
You're right, Frank, the DUmp is boring today.
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nadin hasn't chimed in yet?
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nadin hasn't chimed in yet?
I'm surprised she hasn't.
In fact, I saw a lot of campfires burning on Skins's island today that I thought for sure nadin'd be there, adding her two cents' worth, but nope, no nadin.
She must be out working on a big story.
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Beth found what's called an Indian Sex Stone.
AKA another effin rock :-)
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Actually, poor stupid Beth has been on Skins's island only since November 2004, and if that's taken into consideration, it's more than 40+ posts per day.
That's even more pitiful. I had figured her for being one of the original DUmmies.
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Did anybody else go over to look at the pics, and see only a rock?
You're right, Frank, the DUmp is boring today.
If anything it had been picked up and chucked out of something towed by a tractor.
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Cool!
Poor stupid Beth found a rock!
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Appropriate, since they are "the primitives", after all. They'll stare at it, turn it over and over in their hands, pass it around the campfire, bash Tonga in the head with it, finally have a breakthrough in recognizing it could be a tool to perform work with, and promptly toss it into the bushes in fear.
In a few millenia, they might even find a round stone disc with a hole in its center, and ponder what it might be used for.
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Appropriate, since they are "the primitives", after all. They'll stare at it, turn it over and over in their hands, pass it around the campfire, bash Tonga in the head with it, finally have a breakthrough in recognizing it could be a tool to perform work with, and promptly toss it into the bushes in fear.
In a few millenia, they might even find a round stone disc with a hole in its center, and ponder what it might be used for.
Good one. Awesome.
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Appropriate, since they are "the primitives", after all. They'll stare at it, turn it over and over in their hands, pass it around the campfire, bash Tonga in the head with it, finally have a breakthrough in recognizing it could be a tool to perform work with, and promptly toss it into the bushes in fear.
In a few millenia, they might even find a round stone disc with a hole in its center, and ponder what it might be used for.
For some reason I find this to be one of the funniest things I've read on here in a while. Maybe because it is so accurate.
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Cool!
Poor stupid Beth found a rock!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY-FaTuuglo[/youtube]
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Poor stupid Beth should ask Lizzy Warren. :-)